What are the agent expectations during THE CALL when there are more offers on the table?

Sorry if this question has already been asked, but I trawled through the pages this morning and didn't find anything similar. I know it's okay to ask for 7-14 days to consider an offer when it's come out of the blue. But what about when the agent read your full because you gave them a deadline in which to offer? Will they be annoyed they already sped up their reading and offered, and are now being asked for time to consider? Do they expect you to say yes or no, then and there on the phone in this situation?

I'm asking because I've got agent phone calls lined up between tomorrow and next Friday, and from feedback so far I suspect there will be a few more offers/phone call requests. I can't talk to everybody this week (a family bereavement means I'm travelling to a funeral on Friday, back on Monday). I don't want the agents I'm talking to this week to feel slighted, but I can't make any decisions until I've spoken to everybody next week. One agent in particular. Gah!

To my relief, the first agent who offered has very politely responded with an affirmative to my request for another week to consider/look over their contract. At first glance it's very confusing!

Thanks, oh AW gurus. I've been asking loads of questions lately and you've all been a great help in this journey!

Jeneral said:

I'm a little confused by your question. There should be one deadline for everyone. Agent #1 offers, and you determine the deadline to get back to them (which is absolutely industry standard, it's to be expected that you have multiple fulls out, and a deadline 7-14 days away is professional courtesy for those other agents). Then you send out the nudge emails, and Agent #2 reads and offers. Same deadline applies. You're waiting out that deadline to give all agents with the full time to read and either offer or pass within that time. Agent #2 isn't going to expect you to accept their offer before the deadline, or expect a new deadline to be set.

Does that make sense? I had multiple offers, and when Agent #2 offered, at the end of our call I asked for the contract to review, and said "thank you so much, you've given me a lot to consider" or something like that. But she knew that the deadline was still a few days away, she wasn't expecting me to jump on her offer.

Anyway, feel free to PM if you want to discuss further.

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Hi Jeneral

Thanks for the response. This is what happened: Agent 1 emailed with an offer but said they'd phone to talk only after Frankfurt and they'd send me their contract. That was last week. I then sought advice and told all the agents reading fulls, and gave a deadline of 10 days. Fine, right? Except I had something like 49 query requests off of #pitmad and #dvpit, and also queries out with agents from before these contests. But then I got the news about my uncle, and to be honest it really threw me into a deep place I'm still in. We were close, and it's looking as though his passing was...helped along. I can't say anything else about that at this time, except that it's really, really thrown me. So I travelled to see my family and telling the other bunch of agents about my offer faded into the back of my mind. But when I returned on Monday, I thought I'd better tell everybody about the offer, especially since I'd had two more in the interim. So, when I told the new batch of agents I did extend that deadline because I didn't think it was fair to give them only five days. Maybe it was the wrong thing to to... I wasn't really thinking straight. I did, however, ask Agent 1 if it was okay to extend and they said yes. So I put in a new deadline.

Does this make sense now? As an example of what not to do when you get offers, perhaps? In my defence I've been hit hard by my uncle's passing, and I simply did not want to trawl through my spreadsheet telling umpteen agents I'd had an offer. So I didn't. And now I've got these two deadlines, about 5 days apart, and I'm hoping the agents from first batch won't expect an answer on the phone. From what Hester says (upstream) I'll be fine to ask for some time to consider while I talk to other people.

Does that make more sense now? But generally, even if I didn't have the other batch of agents weighing in, I was curious as to whether it was okay to ask for more time. I've got one agent who's phoning me on the exact deadline day! So I asked for more time and it all seems okay with first offering agent. I'm reading over that contract and it's...hmmm.

Jeneral said:

Oh, yeah, that totally makes sense. And I think that, given those circumstances, you were absolutely right to let Agent #1 know you had a death in the family and needed to extend the deadline. And if you talk to any of that first round of agents (who still had the original deadline), just let them know on the phone what happened and you needed to push things back a few days. Or you could even do a follow-up to them like "I know the deadline was XXX, but due to extenuating circumstances the deadline has been extended to XXX." If you want the first round to have that new deadline. If not, don't worry about it.

In any case, agents don't expect an answer on the phone. (Good ones don't anyway) You always need time to consider, review the contract, talk to clients.

I'm so sorry for your loss. This should be such an exciting time, I'm sorry everything is happening at once.

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Thanks. I don't want people to think I'm not happy about the offers. I am, really, but I'm in this very weird place... I wrote this book for my mother, started writing it the day of her funeral last year, when I was too distraught to be around other people. It turned into this other, zippy yet hard-hitting YA tale, based on some pretty powerful events I lived through. I think that's the reason there's been a lot of interest, and because the book is based around real events there is also a reason for some additional stress about who handles this tale. If you happen to read my query in the 'successful query' thread (can't remember what it's called now, but I will post it in there once things are 'settled'), you'll see why I'm treading carefully.

Thanks again for your response. I do feel a bit less worried now!

Old Hack said:

Just tell them that you have a funeral to go to, and so are going to need more time. It's a reasonable thing to do. They'll understand. And if they don't, you probably wouldn't want to work with them anyway.

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True. I was just concerned they'd want an answer on the phone, since they read to my deadline and I'm like, 'hey, now I want more time.' My husband thinks that as long as I don't burst into tears over the phone I should be okay. Thanks for responding.

Siri Kirpal said:

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

Life does this often, in my experience. The 9-11 attacks happened right while I was still walking on air about the offer of publication for my yoga book. My father died the following month. So, yeah, I know that crash of ecstasy and misery real well.

And agents understand that life does throw things at us. Say you're dealing with a family death and they won't have any problems with the change in deadline (unless they're the sort you don't want to work with). And they won't mind if you break into tears during the call either.

Mega-congrats and mega-condolences. PM me his name and we'll chant for him.


Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

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I'm PM ing you! Thank you so much for your words!

Well, after a somewhat traumatic time I'm pleased to announce I've signed with Leon Husock of Lori Perkins Agency! After nudging due to my first offer, I had a total of nine offers of representation--which was incredibly stressful! In the end I had to narrow it down to my top three, and think about what matters most to me: experience, personality and communication style. Leon came out tops, plus he has a very cute cat! lol He'll represent me for my YA career, not just this book, and the agency will also take on my adult romances if I want them to. For my sub stats check out the Lori Perkins thread.

Thank you so much everybody, for helping me along this journey, answering my questions, giving me advice and offering support both on the public forum and through PMs! AW forums rock!

CameronJohnston said:

Oh, wow, that is fantastic Pisco Sour! Congratulations
Nine offers of representation? You must have something really special there. I'll look forward to seeing it published.

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Thanks! Now to see if publishers think the same. lol. As for the offers, it seems a lot but that's only bc I had so many Twitter contest requests. The process was really stressful. People started asking for fulls and then offering, but actually, most of the agents who requested fulls either rejected within the time limit, or never got back to me. This, after saying they 'couldn't wait to read' and 'loved' whatever amount they'd read so far. It was weird. Anyhoo, I'm really happy with Leon, so pleased he didn't step aside when he did tell me that's what he usually does.

Thank you so much for your congratulations and good wishes. Goodness knows I asked so many questions--totally stressed out at one point! I really appreciate all the input, and I hope to return the favour where needed.